The Koyas are one of the few multi-lingual and multi-racial tribal
communities living in India. They are also one of the major peasant tribes
of Andhra Pradesh numbering 3.60 lakhs in 1981. Physically they are
classified as Australoid. The Koyas call themselves as “Koithur”. The land
of Koithur or the Koya land includes the Indravati, Godavari, Sabari,
Sileru rivers and the thickly wooded Eastern Ghats, covering parts of
Bastar, Koraput, Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar and the East and West
Godavari districts. This region is situated at a height of 150-300 metres.
The Koyas speak the language called “Koyi”. It is blended with Telugu in
Andhra Pradesh.

The story of the Koyas goes back to pre-historic times. They seem to have
had a highly evolved civilization in the past in which they were a ruling
Tribe.

According to the Koya mythology, life originated from water. The friction
between the fourteen seas resulted in the emergence of moss, toads, fish
and saints. The last saint was God and He first created Tuniki and Regu
fruits.

During the eighteenth century, the Marathas invaded and subverted the
Koyas along with the Gonds. The continuous pillage and harassment by the
non-tribals resulted in the loss of the vestige of Koya civilization. The
Koyas were driven to take refuge in the inaccessible highlands. In this
period they were depicted by travellers as treacherous savages.
Later Bhadrachalam taluk was handed over to the British by the Nizam. At
that time, the taluk was divided into divisions each comprising 225 Koya
villages. The whole land was under the mercy of the Rohillas. The last
great plundering by them was in 1859 near Parnasala.

There are many endogamous sub-divisions among the Koyas of Bhadrachalam
agency, such as Racha Koya, Lingadari Koya, Kammara Koya and Arithi Koya.
Each group is vocationally specialized having a separate judiciary system
which ensures group endogamy. There are also differences in food habits.
Lingadari Koyas do not eat beef and do not interdine with others. They
perform purificatory rites to depollute the effects of intergroup
marriages. The Racha Koyas are village administrators. They also perform
rituals during festivals. Kammara Koyas make agricultural implements. They
are blacksmiths and are generally paid in kind. Arithi Koyas are bards.
They narrate the lineages. They are the oral custodians of Koya mythology.

Each of these sub-divisions among the Koyas have exogamous phratries
having separate totems which are again split into a number of totemistic
sects which form the lineage (“velpu”) pattern. For example, in Chinthur
mandal of Bhadrachalam agency, the Paderu Gatta (phratry) of Racha Koyas
worship “Dhoolraj” and their totem is wooden. These phratries have a
number of totemistic sects each denoted by a name, totem and worshipped by
a group of families having separate names. For instance, 3 Gatta
worshippers of Bheemraj are further classified into three groups on the
basis of their “Ilavelpulu” (family deities). Marriages between members
of the same totemistic sect is prohibited.

The Kinship network among the Koyas assigns every individual a definite
place within a system of relationships and defines one’s behaviour towards
others. Every Koya is born into a phratry and a clan and his position is
immutable.

The Koyas have a patrilineal and patrilocal family. The family is called
“Kutum”. The nuclear family is the predominant type. Usually, sons in a
family live separately after marriage, but continue to do joint
cultivation (Pottu Vyavasayam) along with parents and unmarried brothers.
Monogamy is prevalent among the Koyas. Marriages take place after boys and
girls become adults and in marriage negotiations the girl’s consent is
taken. The preferential marriage rules favour mother’s brother’s daughter
or the father’s sister’s daughter.

Generally, the mate is selected through negotiations. But other practices
of capture and elopement also exist, involving a simple ritual of pouring
water on the girl - the water being the symbol of fertility. There is
bride price involved in arranged marriages. Marriage is celebrated for
three days. It is not simply an affair between two families. It is an
occasion for two villages and all the relatives. Every person carries
grain and liquor to a marriage to help the bridgroom’s family. Marriages
take place in summer when palm juice is abundantly available. The
Bison-horn dance is a special feature on the occasion of a marriage
ceremony among the Koyas.

Birth, marriage and death are the three important aspects of life and each
event is celebrated on a grand scale in Koya society. The funeral ceremony
among the Koyas is strikingly peculiar. The corpse is carried on a cot
accompanied by the kinsmen and villagers including women. They
symbolically offer material objects like grains, liquor, new clothes,
money and a cow’s tail by placing them on a cot besides the corpse and the
whole cot is placed on the pyre with the feet towards the west. They
generally burn the corpse. The corpses of pregnant women and children
below five months old are buried. They have a ceremony on the eleventh day
after the death which is called “Dinalu”. At this time they believe that
the spirit of the dead comes back and resides in the earthern pot called
“Aanakunda”. The occasion of death is a common concern in which all the
relatives share the burden and expenditure of the family of the deceased.
After the ceremony is over, they sing, dance and have feasts.

The Koyas are thickly populated in the Chinthur mandal of Bhadrachalam
agency in Andhra Pradesh. This area is part of the thick forest region
that extends along the left bank of the Godavari river.

The major forest species are teak, bamboo, maddi and cashew. The minor
forest produce includes beedi leaves, gum, honey and tamarind. Sorghum is
the staple crop and rice and tobacco are grown along the river banks.

There are 89 Koya villages and a small town in this mandal with density of
population being 123 persons per sq.km. Agriculture is totally dependent
on rains. Owing to small land holdings (the average land-holding per
family is 2.0 acres wet and 4.1 acres dry land) and no irrigation
facilities, above 55 percent of the families continue practicing slash and
burn (podu) cultivation, while 10 percent of the population are landless.
Due to the limited availability of land for cultivation, total dependence
on rain for irrigation and the growing population pressure over the Koya
land, the agriculture of the Koyas has become predominantly a subsistence
way of farming. The ecological surroundings - especially forests - provide
the Koyas with food, beverages, fodder, shelter and medicinal herbs.

Though the Koyas are farmers by occupation, most of their food supplies
are drawn from the forest. Roots and fruits form their subsidiary food.
They eat Keski dumpa and Karsi dumpa, which are the common roots available
in this region. They cut these roots into pieces, keep them in running
water for three days and boil them to make them edible. During drought
years the Koyas go in groups into the forest to collect these roots in
large quantities.

The Koyas also collect various forest products to supplement their meagre
agricultural returns. They sell these products in the weekly shandy and
buy other required commodities. There is no other monetary transaction
among the Koyas except in the shandy.

Their staple diet is sorghum. They grow several varieties of sorghum
(Konda Jonna, Pacha jonna, etc.) and a few pulses. Rice is also grown in a
few wetlands. Podu - the slash and burn cultivation - is the traditional
mode of agriculture for the Koyas. They clear the jungle on hillslopes,
burn the trees and grow crops in the ashes. In the past, they used to
cultivate a piece of land for two to three years and leave it fallow for
eight to ten years. Now, the fallow period has been reduced to two to
three years due to the restrictions on podu and the increase in population
among the Koyas. Most peasant families among the Koyas practice podu. They
regard slash and burn cultivation as a necessary evil and resort to it
solely for their survival.

The overall land under settled cultivation is barely seven percent. Rice
is generally preferred in wetlands, although few families have recently
started cultivating some commercial crops. On the whole only 0.4% of the
agricultural produce is sold. In the majority of cases, the rate of yields
do not even meet the requirements of the farmers.

The size and nature of the land and environmental conditions made
agriculture labour-intensive, demanding co-operation of the kinsmen and
the villagers in undertaking agricultural operations. Joint cultivation,
known as “Pottu Vyavasayam” is a common practice among the Koyas. Landless
families go with their agricultural implements and join those who own
land. The yield is shared between the landowner and others who have
contributed labour. This practice ensures unity within the group and
avoids further division of land holdings.

The Koyas are expert hunters and the good hunters are looked upon as
heroes. For the Koyas, hunting is an essential skill for food as well as
for defence from wild animals in the forest. On the occasion of the “Vijja
Pandum” (the festival of seeds), Koyas go hunting in groups.
Fish is another important food for the Koyas. In villages near rivers,
quite often fish is a meal for every family. They ensure fair share of
fish to all. The Koyas use various types of nets tied to bamboo poles
which are used in still waters.

During the toddy palm season, every Koya family lives mainly on palm juice
for almost four months. For them palm juice is not just a beverage, but
also a complete food. On average, every Koya family owns at least four to
eight palm trees. Palm juice is consumed three to four times a day in
large community gatherings known as “gujjadis”.

The Koyas consider the palm tree as a gift of nature and to secure this
gift they worship the village Goddess “Muthyalamma”.
On all social and religious occasion, liquor plays an important role among
the Koyas. The “Ippa Sara” or the mohuva drink is purely an intoxicating
beverage. The Koyas consume mohuva liquor to get relief from the physical
hardship of the day and to withstand extreme variations in the climate.
The houses are built within one’s own agricultural land. These are
rectangular in fashion and are built of the material that is available
from the forest. These houses are constructed on an elevation of two to
three feet with walls made of bamboo, plastered with mud and roofed with
palm leaves. The houses are highly functional and meet the requirements of
a farmer’s family. They are leak-proof, quite warm during winter and cool
during summer.

Most of their festivals are related to agricultural operations. Kolupu is
one such occasion which comes during November. The Koyas worship the
Earth-Goddess “Bhudevi” and they enlist the co-operation of the Goddess by
offering animal sacrifices during the festival. They believe that sowing
seeds that are soaked in sacrificial blood brings them good crops.

The Koyas deify their ancestors and worship them on all social occasions.
All the clan members join together to worship their ancestors.
The Koyas believe in four guardian deities who are supposed to control the
four directions. The Koya pantheon consists of various gods and goddesses
who are the symbols of various forces. Among them Bhima, Muthyalamma,
Sammakka and Sarakka are worshipped by non-tribuals of the surrounding
regions as well.

The sense of supernaturalism is strongly rooted in the Koya’s concept of
nature. They worship personal spirits which are thought to animate nature.
They also believe in evil spirits that are dangerous to the harmony of
group life. The traditional medicine man “Buggivadde” and the sorcerer
“Vejji” are supposed to ward off all kinds of evil spirits.

Through their cultural practices, the Koyas exercise communal control
over their means of production. They collectively manage their natural
resources, ensuring equal opportunity to all.

Every koya village is a socio-political unit and also a part of a larger
social and territorial unit called “Mutha”, a cluster of villages linked
by economic, political and kinship ties. In the past, a Koya village
consisted of members of a single clan only. Now it has transformed into
multi-clan composition due to various factors such as growing population
pressure on the land, non-tribal migration, alienation of tribals from
forests and massive industrial deforestation.

The customary law of the Koyas ensures communal ownership of natural
resources administered by the village headman known as “Pedda”. The pedda
is the senior-most person who first settled in the village and established
the village Goddess. The position is held by descendents of the same
family. Pedda controls the social, political and religious activities in
the village. The village panchayat consisting of the other members (Pina
pedda, Vepari, Pujari, etc.) deals with minor problems. Sometimes the
pedda holds two or three positions in a panchayat. The village panchayat
is the final authority over all issues in a village. The overall judicial
system of a cluster of villages is maintained by the “Samithi Poyee”, a
judicial head who is assisted by the people known as “Veparis”. Issues are
dealt with in co-operation with the village panchayat and this makes every
village a part of a wider cluster known as mutha and is held by tribal
norms.

The political system of the Koyas is slowly accommodating the process of
colonization of agency tracts by non-tribals. The traditional systems of
mutha and panchayat are slowly losing their autonomy. Among the Koyas
there has been an increase in landless population in recent years. Many of
the landless are becoming agricultural labourers. In Chinthur mandal,
about ten percent of the population work as wage labourers in the forest
for more than six months a year. Though the Koyas have the tradition of
safeguarding their forests, due to the conditions of alienation from the
land and forests, they are now slowly being reduced to wage labourers,
engaged in cutting and loading of timber, firewood and bamboo for
industrial requirements. This work is purely temporary and does not
provide any steady income. There are several changes occurring in the
subsistence pattern among the Koyas. The changes in occupational pattern
from agriculture to wage labour are leading to changes in their social
traditions.

There are also servere disturbances in marital life due to non-tribal
exploitation of women. The panchayat system now is generally weak in
arresting non-tribal intrusion and exploitation. There is a process of low
productivity trap in agriculture of the Koyas which is a consequence of a
complex set of phenomena. The population pressure, the limited
availability of land for cultivation, total dependence on rain for
irrigation, industrial deforestation and the modernization and
“development” process have all affected the autonomy of the Koyas and the
integrity of the traditional social system is fast being broken down and
is rapidly fading away.

But through generations of trial and error in the face of adverse
conditions of the climate and the cultural contact with non-tribals, the
Koyas have evolved a unique pattern of adaptation to the environment
through their various internal social arrangements and belief system. With
every change in the productive technology and economy there will be a
corresponding change in man’s dependence on nature and with every change
in the relationship between man and his environment there is a change in
the man to man relationship. Again, with every change in man’s
relationship to nature there is a corresponding change with man’s
relationship with his supernatural world.

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VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Most often, making of a documentary is akin to the process of feature filming in the sense that ideas are preconceived, scripts are made in advance, shooting and editing are done accordingly. Most of the documentaries are meant to generate messages serving the ideologies of the funding sources. It is no surprise that the masses are averse to these packages of propaganda.

Ethnographic film as a genre seeks to reveal one society to another creating an environment for trans-cultural understanding. It is loosely bound by perspectives in anthropology and supposedly far from ethnocentrism and propaganda. Here, the camera becomes an instrument of observation and record in the hands of an anthropologist. Events and social cultural phenomena are candidly recorded and interpreted with knowledge gained from participant observation.

Visual Anthropology admits the validity of different documenting styles and objectives for a variety of purposes like research, teaching, broadcast etc. There is a tremendous need for the potential use of film and photography in anthropological research. Also, there is an urgent need to document the rapidly vanishing diverse tribal cultures.

A picture contains thousand words. It might represent an aspect of reality.But it is only a construction. A word is not the thing. It is only a representation. Symbols are not the things which they represent. And realities are relative. Absolute reality is beyond our intellectual enterprise. Physics proves that the deeper we penetrate the matter the far are we from the truth because our instrument of observation intrudes and alters the spontaneous behavior of the subject. As long as the observer is separate from the observed, the paradox remains. It is only when the observer ceases as a separate entity, the total understanding is possible.

It is evident today that ethnographies are not considered as scientific studies. They are also not fiction. These are the times when determinism in science is paving way to probability. As Nietzshe put it – there are no facts, only interpretations. Facts or symbols or representations – they never make sense when are in isolation. Integrating them is a creative process. Ethnography and art are creative constructions. They need not claim scientific objectivity. As Robert Redfield put it – in advancing social science, we invent and practice technique and cultivate a humanistic art.

Anthropology thrives on cultural relativity and holism. If not a "science" in traditional sense, it is a rational enterprise. It aims at uncovering the governing principles underlying human diversity. It seeks to comprehend the unifying features that constitute human nature. Visual Anthropology blurs the distinction between science and humanities. It paves way to an understanding of human cultures in a holistic way.

Many works of art are anthropological in this sense.

SATHYA MOHAN PV

"YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL EYE, SATHYA" (John Kennedy Marshall)

About Me

I am an independent ethnographic filmmaker engaged in visually exploring and documenting the fast disappearing tribal and rural traditions of India. Apart from anthropology, I am into metaphysics and shamanism investigating the nature of Multiverse and the contemporary crisis of planet Earth.

I hold a Diploma in
Photography, a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Archaeology and
a Master of Arts degree in Social Anthropology.

In 1988 I won
the National Award of the first University Grants Commision, India,
Educational TV Festival for best production of an ethnographic film,
for my film on the Koyas, a peasant tribe in Andhra Pradesh, India.

I
was sponsored as an overseas guest in the Second International Film
Festival, Conference and Workshop on Ethnographic Film held in
Manchester, UK, organized by Royal Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland and Granada Television, UK in 1990.

My
film on the Samanthas was screened in the competitive category of the
International Film Festival on Science, Society and Development held
at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India in 1995.

My film on the
Chenchus, an only living (Nallamalai forests of Andhra Pradesh)
hunting gathering tribe in the mainland India, won a Golden Nandi
Award (First Best Documentary Film) in 2003 and a Special Mention
Award in the Mumbai International Film Festival 2004 for "portraying
an ancient Indian tribe in a sensitive manner". The film was screened
in the 18th Parnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film
Festival (2004), Estonia and in the 8th International Documentary
Film Festival Jihlava 2004 (Czech Republic).

I have received
Gold Medals and numerous other awards, spoken at conferences and
published a wide variety of work in ethnography and visual
anthropology.